Month: February 2024

Categories
Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

Tampa Bay History Center

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Saturday I visited the Tampa Bay History Center with about 30 of my Sebring Historical Society friends. We left our own museum (via charter bus) just before 8 AM, and we got to the Tampa Bay History Center (downtown on Water Street) right at 10 AM. Our docent was waiting for us up on the 2ND floor. (The museum is 4 stories with the bottom / ground floor serving mostly as the main entrance. All of the exhibits are on the 2ND, 3RD, and 4TH floors.)

It’s a very nice modern museum (built from 2007 to 2009). Our docent led us on a tour of the 2ND and 4TH floors, and we also watched a couple of short films. (The 3RD floor was self-guided.) There were lots of interesting and informative permanent and temporary exhibits supporting the history of the Tampa Bay area. (I especially liked the Roaring ’20s temporary exhibit.)

We spent 3 hours at the museum, but you can easily spend much of the day there, as there is plenty to see for all ages. (They are open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM.)

A few of us were also looking at that multi-story museum (built up instead of out) as an idea for our own future museum / offices / archives / conference center space somewhere near downtown Sebring. (Right now we’re bursting at the seams with a cramped standalone museum and offices and archives packed like sardines in leased space located underneath the city’s public library.)

After our museum visit we enjoyed a very nice buffet lunch at the historic (120-year-old) Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. The restaurant sits on an entire city block (East 7TH Avenue between North 21ST & 22ND Streets). It is perhaps the largest Spanish restaurant in the world at 52,000 square-feet. It can handle up to 1,700 customers at one time. It was very busy on this Saturday afternoon. (We had our own private dining room up on the 2ND floor.)

It was another fun field trip with my Sebring Historical Society friends. I’m looking forward to finding out the next destination !

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll reveal the next two likely pitstops on my upcoming retirement road-trip to North Texas. One overlooks the mighty Mississippi, and one is in East Texas where U.S. 80 and U.S. 59 meet. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 367

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back over 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday February 25TH 2024 – the 367TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 2 12 Strong
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Anne Wilson
2 3 12 Lead On Good Shepherd Patrick Mayberry
3 5 9 Hallelujah Anyway Rend Collective
4 4 4 These Days Jeremy Camp
5 1 16 I Believe Phil Wickham
6 – 1 You’ve Already Won Shane & Shane
7 – 1 He Does Brandon Heath
8 8 3 Don’t Stop Praying Matthew West
9 10 2 Honestly, We Just Need Jesus Terrian
10 9 3 Never Tasha Layton

# 1 This Week In:
2023 – “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” – Matt Maher
2022 – “Jesus Is Coming Back” – Jordin Feliz Ft. Mandisa & Jonathan Traylor
2021 – “Say I Won’t” – MercyMe
2020 – “Almost Home” – MercyMe
2019 – “Maybe It’s OK” – We Are Messengers
2018 – “Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard
2017 – “Love Broke Thru ” – TobyMac

BRANDON HEATH – Welcome to Sebring this upcoming week ! Brandon will be performing LIVE in concert at First Baptist Church this upcoming Thursday night. He’ll be with Josh Wilson (“Dream Small”, “Revolutionary”) and Natalie Layne. Sadly – I will not be there to enjoy their Praise & Worship music to our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ, as I will be out-of-town. But I know that God’s Glory will shine bright on that night, and lives will be changed forever. Brandon enters my chart this week with his latest – “He Does”.

SPOTIFY – You can hear “My Top 10 Hits” anytime simply by heading over to my CountUp playlist on Spotify. All 10 hits are there from top to bottom. You can hear them in order from # 1 to # 10, or you can shuffle them. My playlist will be updated every weekend (usually before the actual chart is presented here on Mondays). You can link to it here.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again with the new weekend – and 3 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #SundayScripture, and #MusicMonday.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. God used loud music on the radio to reach me in August of 2006. I’ve been testifying about Him ever since.

Be blessed my friends !  May our God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Career Christian Church God Military Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday February 25TH 2024, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Well – it’s the final Sunday of my 39-year career with the USAF. Tomorrow (Monday) I return back to Homestead Florida for the final time as a Federal Government employee. I’ll be on-base on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to “out-process”. That’s a fancy military term for “depart”. I’ll be driving and walking around the airbase with a checklist of buildings and offices that I need to report to in order to get signed-off for clearance / departure from the base. Each office will essentially confirm that I don’t have any obligations with them or possess any Government equipment. My final stop is the office where I’ll turn-in my I.D. card. After that – I’ll drive off the base and into the sunset.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
(2 Timothy 4:7 NIV)

On Friday March 01ST I’ll awake the brand-new day as a 100% Retiree. No need to prepare for that life-changing event. I’ve been living the life of a semi-retiree for the past year (ever since I moved away from Homestead).

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Retirement Road-Trip

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. During the first 3 weeks of April – I’ll be on a retirement road-trip – so-called because I’ll be enjoying the open road as a newly minted American retiree with lots of free time on my hands. It’s a road-trip that I’ve been imagining in my mind for many years now. It’s a road-trip that I’ve been practicing for the past 35 years.

I was originally going to embark on this road-trip not knowing what I would see, who I would see, and where I would go with each new day. But the more I thought about it – the more I worried that it would be a bit chaotic. I did not want chaos to be a part of this adventure, so recently I determined a departure date from home, an arrival date in North Texas (where family lives), a departure date from North Texas, and an approximate end date of my road-trip. I’ve also created pitstops along the way, so I know about how many hours and miles I plan to drive each day on the road, and which towns I plan to spend the night in.

Night 1 will be spent in Gadsden County Florida near Quincy – a western suburb of Tallahassee. Night 2 will be spent in Mobile Alabama. I’ll be leaving Quincy fairly early in the morning so that I can pull-in to Mobile later that same morning and maximize my time sightseeing around town. My first stop will likely be the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. I’ve driven by it so many times, and I’ve always wanted to check it out. I also hope to visit the historic (built in 1855) Bragg-Mitchell Mansion. Finally – time and weather-permitting – I hope to check out the Mobile Botanical Gardens. If I don’t make it to the Gardens on this day – then it’ll be on my list of places to visit the next time I’m in town. I really like the Mobile area. There’s so much history to see all around, and I have friends who live in the area who are part of my personal history in Homestead Florida.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write all about the Tampa Bay History Center. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp